All posts in category Legacy Family

How often do we fast forward through a conversation because A: We know what they’re going to say, anyway; B: We have something we want to say and are no longer listening to the other person or C: Our mind is wandering to something else and leave them speaking to the air? Never, right?!
When communication is rocky, use this tool to change the dynamic of the conversation: Active Listening. Active listening means listening to the intention of the speaker rather than inserting your own conclusion or meaning. It means taking the time to understand what the other person is saying instead of making assumptions.

For instance, the speaker may say: “I can’t give you money. I need it.” It is easy to make a judgment or assumption about what the speaker is saying but what is really being said here? As the active listener, you take the time to find out rather than jump to your conclusions and assumptions. This is an opportunity for inquiry with an exploratory response like: “Tell me more about what you need it for” or a question like: “So I can better understand, what is important about money to you?” Inquire with a sense of wonder rather than a sense of pre-conceived judgment.

It is important to learn, in active listening, what the speaker intends, with their words. In the example above, the speaker might be inferring that they have few resources and need to keep their resources for their immediate obligations. It could mean that the speaker is not yet convinced that your request is valid or important enough for them to give you any. It could mean that the timing of your request is inappropriate. It could mean that the speaker does not trust you. It could mean that you did not approach the subject in a way that was acceptable to the speaker. There are so many reasons that could have precipitated the speaker’s response. Active listening eliminates the need to assume, to judge or to react and use an inquiring methodology with your mind open to understand what is motivating the speaker to say what they said.

When you listen actively, you provide space for the speaker to tell you about their intentions and motivations. When the speaker has completed their comment, you, the receiver, can reflect and paraphrase what you heard, and relaying what you understood their underlying motivation or interests are. For example, if the speaker were to say: “You never help in the house”, you can reflect and paraphrase by responding: “It sounds like another hand with chores is important to you.” Then follow up with a question: “What would it look like if you had help in the house?” Note how this helps diffuse any shame or blame tricks, tactics or techniques. Note how this type of a response can create a bridge of connection rather than create a wedge of contention.

Communication is active. Tell me where you have found active listening benefit you.

When the subject of passing money to the next generation is broached, a question that is often asked is: “What are you going to do with the money?” Although this is a great question, I think there is a farther-reaching question to ask as well: “How is the recipient being prepared to receive their inheritance?” What make this question so compelling? Because it redirects the subject from being about the money to being about preparing the inheritors. And this is so important yet often omitted.

There is a common phenomenon taking place around the world. This phenomenon even has a phrase associated with it. It has to do with the common consequence to inherited money: inherited wealth does not tend to survive beyond 3 or 4 generations. Independent studies have found that 70% of families lose their wealth by the end of the second generation while 90% of families lose their wealth by the end of the third generation. The common phrase that accompanies this horrible unintended consequence is: in the U.S., shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations; in China, rice paddies to rice paddies in 3 generations; in Italy, barn stall to stars to barn stalls in 3 generations. Although this may be a common consequence to wealth, thankfully, today, this common phenomenon is being addressed head on. Families are looking to change the statistical probability to their accumulated wealth.

Let’s look at two strategies families are using to keep their wealth intact as it moves across the generations.

The first strategy is the passing down of the story, the one that describes how challenges ere overcome, how successes were dealt with, and what it meant for the creators of the wealth to build that which they can pass on. This is important for a family to have because each generation is farther removed from the wealth and having the story reminds them of their roots and of the principles it took to accumulate the wealth future generations have become accustomed to having. When succeeding generations understand what it took to build the wealth in an experiential rather than in a didactic fashion, there is a much greater chance for financial stewardship across generations.

As the multi trillion-dollar asset based makes its way from one generation to the next, in what has been called the biggest asset transfer in history, I hear a repeating question that has plagued families for hundreds of years: “How could my parents blow it when my grandparents had so much money?”

According to the Williams Group, a wealth consultant group, 70% of wealth families lose their money by the end of the second generation and 90% of these families find their wealth has been squandered, spent, or squabbled over by the end of the third generation. And they are not the only ones to have uncovered troubling findings. U.S. Trust found, in their survey of high net worth individuals, that 78% of the wealth holders feel that the next generation is “not financially responsible enough to handle inheritance.” 64% of those surveyed have disclosed little to their children about their financial wealth.

I have heard many stories due to the work I do with families, keeping them connected across generations, when money matters. One family’s senior generation, turned over all financial decisions, after receiving a large payoff for the sale of a product, to their financial advisor. The financial advisor has become the arbiter of family and friend loans. The financial advisor decides how and when the money is to be used. The family has not established its own purpose to the money. There are no family conversations about money. Although the sale of the product was completed two years ago, there are already disagreements about whether or not to let the next generation know about their wealth, where to send their children to college, and whether or not to help an older generation with their mounting health care bills. The financial advisor is not equipped to help the family build a framework of purpose to the money so family conversations about money can be neutral rather than tense.

Another family, whose story I know, doesn’t want their children to know about the money they received from the sale of a business. They decided, after receiving their initial check that nothing would change at home. But within a few months, one parent had quit work, wanted to move their parents to live near them, and was adamant that they did not want their older teenage children to know anything about “the money” as it may ruin them. The other parent has found that they cannot engage in a meaningful conversation with their spouse about their money. It has created a gap between them.

Money, in families, needs to become just another topic conversation or more families run the risk of finding that their money becomes a “home wrecker.” When money is not talked about and understood for its role in the family’s life, data supports the fear that the next generation will “blow it.”

“How did my parents blow it when my grandparents had so much money?” is a question I am often asked. “They didn’t know any better. Nobody taught them about what money meant to them nor helped them construct a framework of purpose that the family shared, developed and sustained across generations.

What can you do to affect a framework of purpose and financial smarts in your family? Let me know I would like to hear your comments.

Conflicts can arise in families with family businesses in many areas, but one that seems to be prevalent and I see in many of these families is: conflict around money.

When there are family members both in and out of the family business, the topic of money can become heated when differing objectives are striving to be served. As the business grows, the business “side” may very well need and want to re-invest profits in the business, pay down debt, or expand while those not in the business may want their distributions or dividends to grow. This is a natural tension that can disrupt any family enterprise and family heart.

Families who want to sustain the family across generations while continuing the family business have had to create successful models to keep the harmony of the family objectives in partnership with those of the business. A successful model is one that codifies the purpose of the family money with the purpose of the business so both can be understood and appropriately developed.

Because individual expectations can disrupt what is being built or developed, it is critical that purpose be defined and codified by all appropriate family members. It is also important to conduct annual reporting meetings so each “side” is aware of the sustaining objectives of each other and stay in high communication with known expectations. This will reduce conflicts between the two entities. Without purpose, cohesion gives way to individual agendas and behaviors which in turn, ignite conflicts.

You probably know, or at least have read, about the benefits to developing your own purpose and having your own mission. It clarifies your life, making your life simpler. You build direction, energy, and an added dollop of vibrancy. Phil Knight said of purpose, in his memoir, Shoe Dog, “If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointment will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.”

Now, what if this idea of creating a purpose or mission was added to a family’s culture? Would that be novel? Although it might be for your family, it turns out that most families who have stayed connected across generations, have done just that, created their sense of purpose and/or mission. Why? Because doing so creates a bridge of connection in which a sustained feeling of harmony and unity is fostered. It has to. Each family member has bought into this sense of purpose. They are all supporting this mission in ways that mean something to themselves personally as well as for the benefit of their family in generation after generation.

A key ingredient in this family purpose is the purpose of the family money. Money moves and without purpose, it moves aimlessly. When there is a purpose to the family money, it becomes easier to talk about money. This is so because there is a framework around the money with its boundaries and limits, opportunities and possibilities. When family members are included in developing the purpose of the family money, they can determine how and when to use it and as importantly, understand the relevance of this shared money as contrasted with their own money.

Tell me what went through your mind regarding your family’s purpose and the purpose of the family money to the family spanning generations. I would love to hear your comments.

For families with businesses, there are issues that surface as the family grows and ensuing generations get involved or migrate away from the family business.

Conversations about the business that may have started in the living room at home, moved to the kitchen, then a conference room then to a board room, often become a struggle as families grow and as individual agendas develop. Working well together, across generations, can become tense when visions are not aligned, and responsible stewardship is not defined. Competing and contrasting priorities due to generational differences, ownership positions, and desires for the business as contrasted with desires for the family harmony, surface.

It is not natural to manage such complexity. Like a garden who needs proper care and maintenance to stay healthy, relevant, and vibrant, a family is best served by developing a disciplined and purposed component to their family and family business dealings and becoming responsible stewards of what they are growing and eventually, passing down.

Determining an initial purpose to both the family and family business initially separate the two entities so they can clearly define themselves independently. Agreeing on and articulating the value, vision and mission of each entity across generations is key to being responsible stewards. Adapting and becoming comfortable with change is the responsibility of each generation.

Questions to consider asking at home:
• Who do we want our family to be, as a family?
• What do we want our family to represent in the community?
• What is important to us as a family: what do we believe in? What do we stand for?
Creating purpose, mission, vision and family teams to develop the family’s success goes a long way to sustaining intergenerational trust and sustainability.

Questions to consider asking about the business:
• What is the purpose and mission of the business?
• Is the business meant to develop as a business or build family wealth?
• What do we need to do to support our working together?
• How do we communicate business information so it does not take over or interfere with the family environment?
Knowing the purpose of the business, communicating that to the family, developing trust in leadership development are all critical to successfully passing a business legacy and leadership from one generation to the next.

Leave me a comment on your thoughts or experiences on this important topic. I would be delighted to read your comments.

When we forget those who have come before, like our great- grandparents, we forget our history. When we forget our history, we must begin again leaving new footprints that are themselves, swept away and forgotten as our great grandchildren look back at photos of us and wonder who we were.

Contrast this with those families who have captured, and meaningfully nurture the values and enduring traits of those who have come before them as a pillar to support their own lives today and tomorrow.

If you do not care how your family will thrive or if it will drift into a fog of insignificance, your family’s history will play out as it has for centuries for most families. Great grandparents have no meaning, they have been forgotten. New generations start afresh as if nothing came before them.

But if carrying on the spark of “what matters most” to your family, as a group of like-minded connected individuals, then your family story is an important element to your family’s success. And you must create that story. It will not create itself.

Researchers at Emory University found that “…family stories provide a sense of identity through time, and help children understand who they are in the world.” When adolescents can see the values and traits they share with past family members, they form a stronger sense of well-being and a stronger sense of identity. This Emory University study also showed that ​there is real benefit in sharing the stories about where the family came from, both geographically and through their values. Family stories keep families connected through generations by its narrative.

Your story, the one that will live on, will include how you met challenges, what successes have meant to you, what values you deem to be important and why and how they have guided you. Your story will describe how you came to value what you do value so those who come after you can understand themselves better by hearing from you. When they understand themselves better, they have more confidence and feel more secure in a world where those without this foundation, struggle to be seen and known.

Do you have a family story in your family, one that benefits its members, is shared because it came from the “author’s” experience? Let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts on this important recommendation.

I have been part of conversation focused on what the best thing to inherit is. Some think it is cash. Some think it is real estate. Some think it is a portfolio of assets to be reinvested. I suggest it is being prepared, being prepared to become stewards of an incoming inheritance.

Studies show that for 90% of families where wealth makes it to the 3rd generation, it is gone by the end of this generation. This is not due to a fault of this generation. They are merely responding to a lack of preparation and instead doing what is naturally the course, spend, squander or squabble over the inheritance.

Each generation has a unique view and interpretation of its partnership with money and the family. The first generation carries the vision, the passion and focus to build a new company. This generation tends to sacrifice their personal life for the business. They must do so in order to build a successful enterprise.

The second generation has a different perspective. They have grown up with explicit or implicit expectations placed upon them to build on the family fortune that often conflict with their own personal objectives. Understandably this can create great friction. Couple this with squabbling that happens between siblings over the purpose of the wealth and there lays a sure recipe for even bigger problems. Studies confirm that 70 % of families lose their wealth by the end of the second generation.

For those families, whose wealth makes it to the grandchildren, there is a new perspective. The third generation is farther removed from the creation of the wealth. They are accustomed to being wealthy. From their point of view, having wealth is a birthright. They have never seen or been exposed to the struggle or the reason of making money. They are free to dream and create. They have never had nor needed the tools to build a productive life. They are only familiar with spending money.

In three generations, a family’s past and all its treasures will be lost and forgotten. Memories will fade as new generations spend their precious time scrambling to build a-new.

But when a family prepares its present and future for its inheritance, it can grow its bounty. A family who conscientiously grows and develops its assets, is called a legacy family. This is a family where the money as well as the family culture develops and is transferred from one generation to the next with purpose and intention. This type of family uses appropriate systems, tools and activities to stay connected through generations maintaining shared purpose, understanding, and trust. This family becomes a prepared family transferring its wealth with confidence it will grow in the family for generations.

Let me know your experiences on preparing inheritances for long term family connection. I would love to hear from you.

When money can be talked about without the added emotions of hidden blame or unrelenting shame, money conversations can become like other productive conversations: meaningful and connective. When money conversations become supportive rather than decisive, money conversations can beengaging and powerful. Instead of blaming others for their behaviors or shaming ourselves for behaviors and habits we are exhibiting, we become supportive of another’s and our own objectives with money. We become engaged in conversations as we understand others and our own motives and intentions with their and our own money. We can then put in play powerful actions to attain our common objectives. What makes this transformation from feeling divided to feeling unified around money?

When we understand each other’s views and stories about money, we become more engaged with their struggles and triumphs with money. When we take money “out of the closet” of isolation, blame, or shame, and bring it into our shared lives, as partners and as a family, money becomes a productive tool.

What restrains you from talking about money? Is it lack of confidence on your ability to make consistently good decisions about money? Is it an inability to engage your partner in conversations you think are important with your money? Is it an inability to know how to approach planning your financial goals? Is it an inability find time to spend on financial matters and if you had the time, not knowing how to frame a conversation on financial matters? Is it a fear that conversations about money will lead to tension or disinterest from your partner? These can be dealt with productively and effectively.

The first question you can ask someone you share finances with is: What is important about money to you? And let them response without interruption from you. You can learn a lot by asking this one question.

When you find out what is important about money to yourself and to those with whom you share financial interests, money will transform from being hard to talk about to being a welcomed subject of conversation in your house.

Let me know what keeps you isolated with your money or, how you have created a bridge from isolation around your money to it being a productive tool in your and your family’s life.

It is estimated that 20,000 families will each transfer over $20,000,000 to the next generation next year. They will continue doing so, it is forecasted, for the next twenty-nine years. Although this may sound fortuitous, research tells us that 70% of these families will find their wealth gone by the end of the second generation and by the end of the third generation 90% of these families will find their wealth squandered or spent. Unless they take steps to keep the wealth, families will find themselves falling into this statistic.

Money that has been amassed, will be gone, for most families, by the time their grandchildren are thinking about what they can pass to their heirs. The great estate and trust planning coupled with the precise tax and investment positioning, although essential, is not enough. There is an element that most families do not put in place to ensure that their money passes to next generations intact. And that missing element is the preparation of the family for the receipt of the money.

Heirs need a blueprint and a roadmap to know how to sustain the wealth through the generations. They need to master skills of leadership, and family cohesion to successfully steward their new responsibilities associated with the money. Only when families have and master the roadmap to success, will they be able to grow cohesively as a family for many generations.

Let me know how your family is attending to preparing the family for its roles as financial beneficiaries. What kind of conversations are you having? How do family members feel about this forthcoming transfer? How is the family talking about the transfer of financial stewardship?